Serbian media reports on kids mainly negative

The report by the Centre for Media Profesionalism and Literacy (CEPROM) said that every 10th newspaper story about children violates ethical principles and the Serbian Journalists' Code.

More than half (57.95 percent) of the stories in the print media have a negative context with 27 percent being positive and 15 percent neutral. The stories on TV stations are 44 percent positive, 31 percent negative and 25 percent neutral.

Of the total of 769 stories covered in the report, 47 percent had a negative context.

CEPROM conducted its research between July 20 and October 1, covering TV stations with national frequencies(RTS, TV Pink, TV Prva, TV O2 and TV Happy), and seven daily newspapers (Politika, Danas, Veccernje novosti, Blic, Kurir, Informer and Srpski telegraf).

According to the report, TV stations and the print media have less than one story on children a day on average.More than half of the stories about children on all media are negative, reporting child abuse, accidents, violence and drug abuse while the success achieved by kids is rarely reported.